attempt to explain leaving! moving! and selling all my stuff!

I keep wanting to post about this, and then I decide not to because it's such a big thing that it can't be addressed in a blog post. But then it's all I think about lately, and I don't really feel like updating you lucky people with a bunch of stuff that seems frivolous in comparison. Maybe once I post about this I can go back to being frivolous again. I'm selling or giving away all my possessions, including my house. I'm leaving my job and I'm going into the ministry, a homeless, itinerant ministry as close as possible to the way that Jesus and his disciples lived in the New Testament. They left all and followed him, receiving no salary, having no home. Leaving the "cares of life" behind, I'll travel around, staying in one place for about a year (but moving among and staying with different people in our faith -- a different home every two-three days or so) with another, more senior (female) minister. For the rest of my life. Pretty non-frivolous, no?

I have felt called to do this since I was 13 years old and fought it with every fiber of my being, for about 14 years. Finally I came around about 5 years ago and have since been in the process of paying off my law school loans and enjoying the peace, joy, and happiness that has come with submitting to God's plan for my life. One of my aunts jokingly asked me if I have to vote Republican now.....the answer is most emphatically no. :-) NTTAWWT...well, I mean, arguments could be made that there is, but let's not go into that here.

I know most people don't understand what I'm doing, and to many it seems crazy and ridiculous and frightening and foolish and whatever else, but it is very real to me. We do it this way because that's the way Jesus did it. One of the many reasons that this way works perfectly is there's no organization, or outside funding, or structure, or collection plate, or buildings to maintain. I've grown up knowing ministers like this, carrying the gospel this way, my whole life, so it's not new or strange to me as a concept...but doing it myself is, of course, a whole different thing.

I've done a bunch of other stuff, done whatever I've wanted to, been a student, a lawyer, a traveling person with no job, and stuff in between. Some of that time, I've been miserable. All of that time, I've been unsettled. But the life I have within now and the lasting peace and joy I've known since making this decision (about five years ago) is something that cannot be denied. It is the right thing to do, it's my calling, it's what gives me peace and meaning, and it's the only path I want because it's the path for me. So there you go. If ya got questions, feel free to ask 'em.